“Woooo! Hoooo! I’m flyyyyyyyying!”

Icarus swooshed through the sky, whooping and hollering. Right over Penelope, standing on the cliff side. Sun light traced the edges of his wings, framed by the sparkling blue, Mediterranean sea.

“Ha! Ha! Hahaaaaaa!”

Penelope felt the wind from Icarus’s wings on her cheeks. She smelled the salt of the sea, and the musky, sweet scent of beeswax.

It was intoxicating.

“You’re flying!”

“It works!”

“It works!”

Penelope shouted back to him.

Icarus pointed the tip of his right wing down and he arced to the right. White light reflected off his wings as he glided gracefully towards her spot on the cliffside.

Spinning around in rays of sunlight and dappled wing shadows, She raised her arms towards Icarus and the endless blue sky. Icarus glided around her in gentle circles. A kaleidoscope of light and colors surrounded her.

“Hello Penelope!” He grinned broadly.

The brush of wingtips touched her hair as Icarus broke the circle and headed over the cliff’s edge back towards the sea. Right over her head, and into her heart.

Penelope noticed Icarus’s tan, muscled arms flex as he flapped his magnificent white wings, rising higher and higher in the sky.

And then he dove down in a corkscrew pattern towards the salty sea.

He called out to her playfully.

“Penelooooopeeeee!”

“Hahahahaha! Come back to me!” She cupped her hands and shouted, jumping up and down.

It was Icarus’s radiant smile and supreme confidence that drew her to him. That sparkle in his eyes. He exuded the enthusiasm of youth in the growing body of a young man.

Lost in her thoughts, Penelope lost sight of him. She looked to her left, and to her right, and glaced left again.

Icarus was nowhere to be seen.

Fear pierced her heart.

She lay down at the edge of the cliff and peeked over to find him.

Swoooooosh! A blast of wind caressed her and there he was again, sailing over the cliff top.

She watched his boyish grins as he zoomed over her head, tanned muscles rippling from so many days practicing in the sky.

For a moment, Icarus blocked out the sun’s ray. Penelope saw all the edges of feathers cast in golden hued, sunburst rays. His body was cloaked in dark shadows, of hubris and confidence, perhaps. Perhaps.

“Icarus! Don’t fly so high! You will surely hurt yourself!”

That apparently gave Icarus an idea. He started flapping his wings and flying higher and higher towards the sun.

“I’ll fly over Helios himself!” Icarus boasted, joyfully. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Hah!”

“Icarus!” she admonished him. “Don’t say that! The gods will be angry with you!”

Penelope noticed Icarus’s chest muscles contract and ripple as he flapped his wings, powerfully, accelerating higher and higher.

Icarus became a small speck in the sky.

Penelope felt the fear again.

A gust of wind came unexpectedly and jostled Icarus. He started to tumble.

Penelope gasped.

“Watch THIS!” Icarus shouted from afar.

Icarus dove towards the sea.

Hugging the cliffside.

“WOOOOOOoooooooooo! HOOOooooooo!”

His shout faded from earshot as he hurtled to the water.

Pulling up at the last minute.

“Oh, Icarus! You are a stubborn boy!”

Her face frowned, but her eyes glowed.